Shuttle XPC H3-5800 Small Form Factor Desktop PC

Oct 1 2010 - Quality wise, the Shuttle XPC J3-5800 is a good performing system that is well built. The problem with all of Shuttle's built systems continues to be the base features and costs. At $1900, the system is just too expensive compared to the competition or even itself if users choose to buy the parts and put it together themselves. Because of this, it is hard to recommend this small system unless you really want a Shuttle branded product and don't want to build it yourself.

Oct 1 2010 - Shuttle's XPC J3-5800 small form factor desktop system is based around their XPC SX58J3 barebones small form factor kit. Internally, not much has change from their previous X58 chipset based kits. Externally, the case has a slightly different look and a bit larger overall size. One of the minor advantages that it does provide is ten total USB 2.0 ports over the previous models eight.

Shuttle's XPC systems have always been about performance and the J3-5800 is no different in this regard. It uses the new Intel Core i7-930 quad core processor to provide it with an amazing level of performance regardless of the type of application being used. This is combined with 4GB of high speed DDR3 memory to let it tear through memory intensive applications or multitasking without problems. It would have been nice to see them use a 6GB triple channel memory configuration to maximum the memory performance over the 4GB setup.

One of the big advantages to the Shuttle XPC systems over the years has been the use of full sized desktop storage features. The J3-5800 has space inside of the system for two full sized desktop hard drives plus optical drive. The dual layer DVD burner isn't a surprising choice as this is standard for just about any desktop system. What is more surprising is the choice of just a 500GB hard drive. Sure, this provides more storage than small form factor systems based on laptop sized drives but it falls short of the terabyte drives that many using desktop drives now offer.

One of the odd choices for components in the XPC J3-5800 is the graphics card. This is designed as a performance based system but a dated low end NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 graphics card is installed. Sure, this is going to provide better performance than an integrated graphics card but the 3D performance is going to be limited. It is really only suited for casual PC gaming at lower resolutions and detail levels. It would be nice to see them use a modest Radeon HD 5670 or the new GeForce GTS 450 with upgrade options for higher level cards.

The big issue with Shuttle's XPC systems continues to be the pricing. The base XPC J3-5800 system carries a very high $1900 price tag. This is well above what purchasing the individual components and building it yourself would cost. Essentially, the buyer is paying a huge premium for Shuttle to put together a system for them. For nearly the same price, one can buy a small form factor gaming case from Falcon Northwest that has more memory, larger hard drive and better graphics. Because of this, it is either better to buy the parts and put it together yourself to save money or buy one from another company that offers better features for a similar price.